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US defense builds drone that can fly and dive

Apr

3

2015

The US Navy Research Lab working on a drone that can dive under water and can fly short distances. Thus, the “flying submarine” hostile submarines should be harmless.

Submarines which are managed as drone, able to achieve the resistance of the water but low speeds while the maneuverability is limited. This is to combat enemy submarines difficult, especially in shallow waters where are many obstacles. The Navy Research Lab thinks however these restrictions partly to circumvent by a drone largely fly.

A first draft came from the so-called Wanda drone, which stands for Wrasse-inspired Agile Near-shore deformable fin Automaton is as the name suggests, inspired by a species, in this case the Gomphosus varius, a fish in corals to depths of 30 meters swimming. Wanda has four fins, two to send and two for propulsion underwater.

On the basis of this design is done further research. The fins give a different design and adding a wing drone can also fly. There are now performed tests using the “flying Wanda ‘above the water 50 knots, more than 90km / h can be achieved, while underwater speed drops to 10 knots or 19km / h.

The Navy Research Lab has been conducted four test flights and think you have an interesting design in your hands. Future versions Wanda also need to send in the air with his fins, while also looks at how the hybrid drone can be made even lighter, for example by building hollow wings which can also serve as a ballast tank.